


ready, set

by thescyfychannel



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gladiators, Bargaining, Gladiators, Immorality, M/M, Multi, Nobility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2020-04-23 19:16:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19157269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thescyfychannel/pseuds/thescyfychannel
Summary: there are certain bargains you make when you risk your life every day. there are certain deals you find yourself even more willing to take.there are certain pieces of heaven you find in what you're more and more willing to actually call a hell.





	ready, set

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twofoldAxiom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twofoldAxiom/gifts).



> "Gladiator AU of some kind, in any configuration of the three characters, though considering who they are in canon, maybe leaning towards Dave and Karkat being gladiators themselves and Eridan finding a way to get them out of that, or having some kind of ownership over them?
> 
> That's just a suggestion though; I just want to see a lot of drama and the theme of bloodsport somehow involved. If you can work in some kind of Vaguely Religious imagery/themes or dubiously consensual sexual content (whether they go all the way or not), that would also be a bonus, but not really necessary."
> 
> I don't think I covered all of this but I hope there was something of enough

You punch Dave in the shoulder with all the energy your (exhausted, lethargic) body can spare. The fact that he laughs is another sign of the times, of the way you two are handling and holding up. It's also a relief, in a way you can't quite bare to name: You're still alive, and so is he. One more day, done.

One, one, one, one,  _one after another one_  more to go.

 

Sometimes the older warriors—the one who'd made it this long, the ones who everyone was watching for a "retirement", right out of the ring—talked about the work with a kind of love. Like they're married to it, these fearsome fierce warriors of every class and caste and species alike, like they really let it fill all their soul and all their heart.

They're freaks, probably. You'd try to be nice about it, but you're too godsdamn tired for that shit. They're going out there, probably to die, and they don't even have a choice.

(you do not actually talk to the ones who do. none of you would ever listen to the ones who do.)

Dave is...Dave is weird about it. In his opinion, it's yet another fucking coping mechanism. It's how they deal with the trauma, with the feeling of blood on their skin and the vision of another comrade—another fighter, another friend, another beloved enemy—finally learning how to die.

You worry, most days. You worry that you will have to face him. You worry that you already know who will be the one to fall and who will be the one to die.

 

* * *

 

He walks into the room, and all of you haunted souls snap to attention. Where he walks is hallowed ground, what he touches is holy once more, and all the stains and sins resting on your shoulders feel so much lighter after all.

His name is Eridan Ampora, but some of them call him Angel, and all the rest call him Forgiveness.

You are not in either camp. Neither is Dave.

Ampora himself is man. He's no holy icon—although the stiffening of your spine, the drag of your attention onto his (just as tired as yours) face say otherwise—and anyone who buys into the pitmasters' shitty lore deserves to be taken for a fool. Ampora didn't even sign up for that shit—no, he'd started showing up, and some idiots felt a _little_  bit better, and suddenly it was a whole fucking thing. You knew the truth. You'd actually, unlike several literal assholes you could name, _asked_.

But.

But.

It didn't stop the pull, it didn't stop the tug, it didn't stop you from starting to _get_  why they called him Angel.

It didn't change the fact that both you and Dave called him _Rescue_.

 

Here is the truth: Eridan Ampora was once a spoiled noble's son, who came down to the gladiator pits for shits and giggles and a little bit of a good time. It put extra coin in the pocket, it was a chance to be treated well, wined and dined and _clean_  (because he had _standards_ , of course), and then he'd decided to have you and have Dave at the same time and he'd, apparently, fallen in love.

Or he'd been in love all along, and had only managed to tell you now.

That's the part where you're still not so sure.

Here is the truth: Eridan Ampora's father had seen it as a chance to straighten out his second son before he fell where the other had failed. The eldest Ampora had bought the two of you outright, and held you—in the ring, still—as a bargaining chip, over his son's head. Do well, and the two of you survived another day. Fail, and one of you—no telling who—would have to fight.

It is the first fight of several days. Eridan had been doing so damn well.

Here is the truth: The eldest Ampora does not want either of you dead. The eldest Ampora has a certain level of respect in your fighting abilities, yours and Dave's alike, or he would have taken you right out of the ring once he realized the leverage he held.

Here is the truth: He told you this himself.

 

* * *

 

Eridan Ampora walks across the entire room, into the back—private quarters, his own personal ones, now paid for and all—and you and Dave immediately follow. No one questions. No one judges. No one speaks.

Everyone knows what a fighter will do, in and out of the pit, to stay alive.

 

When you get inside, he's on his knees—practically in worship—and you barely get the door closed before he's clinging to one (both) of you.

 

* * *

 

Here is what you know: It is a certain kind of heaven and a certain kind of hell to be caught in a noble's game like this.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for all your help


End file.
